PJO, HoO, and Gods read the Percy Jackson Series
by COTK95
Summary: Join characters from both Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter as they are thrown back in time to read the books along with the gods. Takes place the year after Thalia is turned into a tree.
1. Prolouge

**This is my first fanfic, so please review and let me know what you think.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the Percy Jackson series. They belong to Rick Riordan.**

**Camp Half-Blood**

Annabeth's POV

I was sitting down by the beach, staring into the ocean. Leo had said that the Argo II was almost done. After that, we would be going to Camp Jupiter._ Camp Jupiter._ Those two words held mean more to me than to anyone else, except maybe Jason. Would Percy remember me? What if he had another girlfriend? Then I realized exactly how ridiculous that was. It took Percy four years just to tell me that he liked me. That thought almost made me laugh. I pulled his picture from my pocket and looked at it. We were both smiling and happy in that picture, unlike now when a day couldn't go by without at least one break down into tears for me. I didn't even want to imagine what he was going through. _"I miss you Seaweed Brain." _ Just then a bright light enveloped me.

**On Mount Olympus**

So far the Council meeting was going normally. Athena was yelling in Poseidon's ear about something, but he wasn't paying attention to her. Hades and Demeter were fighting over Persephone. Hera was yelling at Zeus about breaking the oath. Hermes and Apollo were planning something, probably a practical joke. Ares was sharpening his sword. Aphrodite and Artemis were arguing over love. Hephaestus was building something. Dionysus was reading his wine magazine and looking bored. Then it strayed from the usual when a bright light appeared in the throne room, silencing all conversations. The light died and a group of children were standing there. Zeus, being his dramatic self, shouted "Who are you?" while lightning and thunder boomed around him. Poseidon and Hades rolled their eyes, then turned back to the kids. There were twelve of them. A girl who looked about 16 stepped forward. When she looked back at her friends her blonde hair caught the light and her stormy gray eyes had a look of confusion and sadness.

"Lord Zeus, don't you know who we are?"

"Of course not! What are you doing here?"

The girl was about to answer again when a note drifted down in front of the girl. She grabbed it and read it over.

"Well girl, are you going to read us the note or not?" Zeus asked

"The Note says:

_Dear Gods and Demigods,_

_We have sent these children from the future to read about a very special demigod. You are not to harm these demigods in any way, shape, or form. It would have catastrophic consequences on the future. You are also not allowed to change the future. The demigods will not be able to return to the future until all of the books have been read. Enjoy your reading! P.S. The demigods should introduce themselves and their full titles._

_Apollo, Hermes, and the Fates"_

As soon as the blonde girl finished reading the note it was replaced with a book.

"Well, what is the name of the book?" Zeus asked.

The girl just stared at it as if she was punched. Another girl with spiky black hair and punk style clothing moved up to her side and gently took the book.

"The title is 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.'"

"Introduce yourselves then." Zeus demanded

The girl in the puck clothes stepped forward and said, "I am Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus and lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis." She smiled at Zeus and Artemis, but glared at Hera.

The blonde girl stepped forward again and said in a quiet voice, "I am Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena and architect of Olympus." Athena beamed at her daughter, but frowned when she looked closer. Annabeth had deep circles under her eyes and looked like she had been crying earlier. Looking at the other demigods, Athena noticed that they all bore some marks of deep sadness.

A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes stepped forward and said, "I am Jason Grace, son of Jupiter and Praetor of the Twelfth Legion."

As soon as he spoke everyone started murmuring. Athena cleared her throat and all eyes turned to her. "What is a Roman doing with the Greeks?"

"Well, Lady Athena," Jason said, "the future is messed up."

Before anyone else could ask any questions, a boy with messy black hair and black clothes stepped forward. "I am Nico di Angelo, son of Hades and Ghost King."

Hades eyes got large. _ What was his son doing out of the casino?_

Zeus stood up suddenly, "HADES, YOU BROKE THE OATH!"

Hades just looked at him incredulously. Poseidon spoke up, "Zeus, why are you yelling? You have two kids in this room as well."

All eyes turned to him. "You..you said something sm-sm-smart!" Athena said.

"I can say smart stuff!"

Nico cleared his throat and brought everyone's attention back to him. "Lord Zeus, I was born before the oath and placed in the Lotus Casino." Zeus just mumbled under his breath.

A boy with crazy hair and a wild look to his eyes stepped forward, "I am Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus and fire user." He lit his hand on fire just to prove his point. Hephaestus and Leo smiled at each other.

A pretty girl with choppy brown hair and kaleidoscope eyes stepped forward, "I am Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite and charm speaker." Aphrodite beamed at her daughter while Piper smiled back.

Another girl stepped forward, "I am Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter."

"Will Solace, son of Apollo."

"Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares and Drakon slayer."

"Go Clarisse! That's my girl!" Clarisse just smiled at her father.

A boy with a mischievous smile moved up. "Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes." Hermes smiled at his boy.

The last two boys came forward. They look almost exactly like twins.

"Travis,"

"and Connor"

"Stoll" the said in unison, "sons of Hermes."

Thalia came forward again. "Now that we are all introduced, can we sit down and read these books?"

Zeus waved his hand and several couches appeared. "Who wants to read first?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth, who was sitting next to her, grabbed the book and said, "I get to read the first chapter."

She opened to the first page. **"I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-algebra Teacher"**

**A/N: I will try to have the next chapter up no later than tomorrow. Please review and let me know what you guys think. Constructive criticism is welcome. Please review! **


	2. I Accidentally Vaporize My Teacher

**A/N: Thank you to all the people who reviewed.**

**silinthill: I am planning on adding all of those characters eventually.**

**eragon0123: I am planning on doing the entire series, as well as the Heroes of Olympus. If something happens and I can't finish, I will post on here and let everyone know.**

**Little Unusual Me: thank for the review and you never know when they might show up.**

**Andronika23: I know right? **

**And to everyone else who review: Thanks! I really appreciated it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the right to Percy Jackson. So sad! **

Annabeth grabbed the book and read, "**I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-algebra Teacher."**

"Are all the chapter going to sound that weird?" Leo asked.

All the demigods looked at each other and said simultaneously, "Knowing Percy, absolutely!"

"**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood."**

"Ditto!" said all the demigods.

"**If you are reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:"**

"Hit the deck, Kelp Head is giving advice!" shouted Thalia. All the demigods that knew Percy started laughing.

"_I hope all my friends back home aren't this mean about teasing me." _ thought Jason.

"Why are you yelling about his advice and why did you call him 'Kelp Head'?" asked Athena.

"Well Lady Athena, Percy's advice is not always…" started Thalia

"Smart." finished Annabeth. Instead of answering Athena's second question, she kept reading.

"**close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life."**

"Not bad." muttered Clarisse. Travis and Connor had a small camera out to film the whole thing and had heard her comment. When they started laughing Hermes looked at them.

"Boys, are you alright? What are you laughing at?"

Connor had regained his composure and answered, "Nothing Dad. Just a funny thing that we heard."

"**Being a half-blood is dangerous."**

"Check." said Piper.

"**It's scary."**

"Double check." said the Stolls.

"**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways."**

"Triple check!" said all the demigods who fought in the Titan War. All the gods looked at them with concern. _"Was it really that bad?"_

"**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened."**

"We all do, Seaweed Brain." whispered Annabeth.

"**But if you recognize yourself in these pages- if you feel something stirring inside- stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they**_** sense it too, and they'll come for you."**

"Who is 'they' asked Apollo.

"Idiot! He's talking about the monsters." said Artemis.

"OH!"

Annabeth just shook her head and kept reading.

"**Don't say I didn't warn you."**

"You didn't warn me!" whined Nico.

"Oh, I'm sorry that he was just a little bit busy fighting your vice-principle." said Thalia, her voice oozing with sarcasm.

"**My name is Percy Jackson."**

Nobody noticed Poseidon pale at that line. _"Should I tell them that Percy is my son?"_

"_Percy is YOUR son!?"_

Poseidon looked around the room until he noticed Athena staring at him.

"_Yes, Athena. Percy is my son. Since you heard the question and you ARE the wisdom goddess, should I tell everyone else?"_

"_It would probably be wise."_

"Everyone, you should probably know before we continue that Percy is my son."

Zeus stood up and glared at Poseidon, "YOU BROKE THE OATH!"

"So did you Zeus. Twice." Poseidon pointed at Thalia and Jason.

Zeus picked up his master bolt and said, "I should strike him right now! Then we will be done with this problem."

"No Father!" Thalia ran up to him. "If you kill Percy, you kill me and every single person in this room."

"What do you mean?"

"Percy saved my life. How do you think I became human again?"

Zeus sat back down while Thalia returned to her seat next to Annabeth.

"Thank you." whispered Annabeth. Thalia just nodded.

"**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?"**

"YES!" said all the kids that knew him other than Annabeth.

"He's not that bad!" she said.

"**Yeah. You could say that."**

Everyone started laughing at that.

"He even agrees with us!" shouted the Stolls.

"**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff."**

"That sounds amazing!" said Annabeth and Athena.

"Are you kidding! That sounds like torture!" shouted Poseidon.

"**I know- it sounds like torture."**

Everyone smiled while Apollo and Hermes started laughing.

"Like father, like son." said Zeus.

"**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled of coffee."**

"Is that Chiron?" Hephaestus asked.

Everyone looked at Dionysus, who was reading his wine magazine.

"What? Oh, yes, that is Chiron."

"**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep."**

"He slept in class!" I'll let you guess who said that. *cough* *cough* Athena *cough*

"**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"Kelp Head and trouble go hand in hand. There is no way he isn't going to get in trouble!" Thalia said.

"**Boy, was I wrong."**

"Ha, I was right!"

"Nobody said you were wrong, Thalia." said Will.

He managed not to tremble when she turned her death glare on him.

"**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark** **pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that…Well, you get the idea."**

By the time Annabeth finished reading that paragraph everyone was laughing. Some, like Apollo, Hermes, the Stolls, and Leo, were rolling on the floor.

"No tell us more!" Connor shouted.

"**This trip, I was determined to be good."**

"Not gonna happen!" sang Thalia.

"**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich."**

Both Annabeth and Thalia gritted their teeth at this.

"**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must have been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the strat of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled."**

"Somehow, I doubt that Grover would like that description." said Chris.

"**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria."**

"Don't blow your cover!" shouted Hermes and the Stolls.

"**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death-"**

"WHAT!?"

"Relax Lord Poseidon, there's more."

"**by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip."**

"Oh." Poseidon said, embarrassed.

"I love how he would get blamed for something that he might not have done. What would have happened if those things had happened , but another kid did it?" asked Chris.

"Who knows, but with his track record, it would probably be him that pulled anything. " answered Annabeth.

"_Why does she speak as if she know the son of Poseidon well?"_ thought Athena.

"'**I'm going to kill her ,' I mumbled."**

"Do it, do it, do it!" chanted Ares and Clarisse.

"**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat."**

"Aww… this needs more action." whined Ares

"I'm perfectly fine with no action." said Poseidon. Nobody bothered to tell him differently, after all, he would soon find out.

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into."**

"What?" squeaked Poseidon. Everyone just ignored him. Thalia and Nico leaned over to Annabeth and said, " Can we go deck Nancy Bobofit?"

"No. You would have to take Percy with you." Thalia and Nico sat back pouting.

"**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years."**

"Longer than that Seaweed Brain." said Annabeth with a sad smile. She looked so sad that no one mentioned that she was talking to a book.

"**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele**_**, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everyone around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown."**

"_Why does she sound familiar?" _ thought Nico and Hades. Suddenly Hades eyes got big as he realized who Mrs. Dodds really was.

"**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured that I was devil spawn."**

"Now Percy, we all know that Nico is devil spawn." Travis said. Everyone started laughing when Nico and Hades yelled "HEY!"

"**She would point her crooked finger at me and say "Now, honey", real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Grover," Connor moaned, "you aren't supposed to blow you cover!" All the demigods plus Apollo and Hermes nodded.

"**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up**_**?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to."**

"Of course it did." said Will and Annabeth.

"**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"**Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

** pointed to one of the pictures on the stele.**

"**Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

All the elder gods shuddered. "Why does it always have to be that one?" moaned Demeter.

"**Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. " And he did this because…"**

"**Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"GOD!" shrieked Zeus.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Chiron corrects him." Said Annabeth, who was a little bit afraid for her boyfriend.

"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"**Titan," I corrected myself."**

"See."

"**And … he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me."**

"Try being a part of it!" shouted Hera. All of the other elder gods nodded.

"**-and so there was a big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"He just condensed one of the greatest wars in history into three sentences." said Piper. Jason and Leo just nodded.

"There really is no other way to shorten it." said Athena.

"**Some snicker from the group."**

"Why would they laugh? He got it right." said Apollo. Everyone shrugged.

"**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids'."**

"If you are a half-blood, it's very important." said Piper.

"**And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted." sang the Stolls.

"**Busted," Grover muttered."**

"No!" cried Travis

"We think like a goat!" finished Connor. Katie smacked Travis while Clarisse smacked Connor.

"Stop messing up the story!" Katie whisper-shouted to the boys.

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. **

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one to who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears."**

"No, he has horse ears!" shouted Leo. Everyone just looked at him weird until he finally said, "What?" They all shook their heads and turned their attention back to the book.

"**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"How is that a happy note?" asked Leo.

…

"Thanks for the answer guys."

"**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys acting like doofuses."**

"When are boys not doofuses?" asked Artemis

"Hey!" said all the guys in the room except Apollo who said, "You know you love us, Sis."

"Don't call me 'sis'."

"**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything."**

"Well, not everything Kelp Head." said Nico.

"You do realize that you are talking to a book Death Breath?" said Thalia

Nico just glared at her and told Annabeth to continue.

"**You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

"**About the Titans?"**

"**About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"**Oh."**

"**What you learn from me is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard."**

"It's for the best Seaweed Brain." Annabeth whispered.

"**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped."**

"Why does he have and talk about all this Roman stuff?" asked Jason.

"Probably because it was a Latin class and the Romans were the ones who really used Latin." replied Athena.

"Know-it-all." muttered Poseidon.

"What was that, Poseidon?"

"Nothing, Athena." He said with a sarcastic smile. Annabeth wanted to cry because his smile looked so much like Percy's. She missed him so much, but she couldn't focus on that right now, her job was to get through these books.

Aphrodite suddenly looked up from filing her nails and looked at them demigods. She had felt a wave of love and sadness come off one of them. Someone likes Percy, but she hadn't had a chance to pinpoint who yet because it suddenly stopped. _"I will find out who it is."_ she decided.

"**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and have never made above a C- in my life. No- he didn't expect me to be**_** as good**_**; he expected me to be **_**better**_**. And I just couldn't learn all of those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been to the girl's funeral."**

"He probably had been." said Zeus.

"**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class had gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. **

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I had ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in."**

"Okay, why are you two fighting?" asked Demeter.

"I don't know." said Poseidon.

"Whatever the reason is, it's his fault!" said Zeus, while pointing a finger at Poseidon.

"Seriously? We don't even know what is going on and you're blaming me."

Annabeth started reading before a fight could break out.

"**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing."**

"Is she one of yours?" Apollo asked Hermes.

"No, I don't think so." He replied, much to the Stolls and Chris's relief.

"**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that if we did that, everybody wouldn't think that we were from **_**that **_**school-the school fro loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"**Detention?" Grover asked.**

"**Nah," I said. "Not from Mr. Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean- I'm not a genius."**

"Really! I had no idea." Thalia said sarcastically.

"**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to say some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple."**

The entire room was silent for a moment then all at once, everyone started laughing.

"That is classic Grover!" said Leo. When everyone finally calmed down, Annabeth started reading again.

"**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd been disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kick out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me."**

"The boy truly loves his mother." said Hera. Artemis and Athena nodded their heads in agreement.

"**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table."**

Leo and Hephaestus both got a glint to their eyes, which pretty much meant they were going to try and build that.

"**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends- I guess she had gotten tired of stealing from the tourists- and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap."**

Thalia's eyes flashed dangerously when he heard that.

"**Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spry-painted her face with liquid Cheetos."**

"Ewww! Even I couldn't make her look good!" screamed Aphrodite. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears."**

"Fishy powers activate!" yelled Nico and the Stolls.

"**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

"**-the water-"**

"**-like it grabbed her-"**

"That is totally awesome!" yelled Leo. Everyone who had seen Percy use his powers nodded.

"**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, ect., ect.,Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester."**

"You probably did Kelp Head." Thalia muttered.

"**Now, honey-"**

"**I know," I grumbled. " A month erasing workbooks."**

"Never guess your punishment! That's rule 17." Hermes and his sons yelled.

"There is a list of rules?" asked Athena.

"Well duh!" Hermes replied.

"**That wasn't the right thing to say."**

"Told ya." said Travis. Katie smacked his arm in response.

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"**Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I**_** pushed her."**

**I stared at him stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared him to death."**

"That's his job Percy." Annabeth said slowly.

"**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

"**I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

"**But-"**

"**You-**_**will**_**-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"**It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"**Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now."**_

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare."**

"You do NOT want to be at the receiving end of one of those." Nico said as he shuddered.

"**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way up at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I had moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things."**

"I'm not so sure that's right Perce." said Nico. Annabeth snorted when she read the next line.

"**I wasn't so sure."**

"NO! Nico, you can't think like a fish person!" Travis wailed.

"Katie, could you…"

"No problem." Katie replied as she smacked his head.

"**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall."**

"There is no way that she is not a monster." Athena declared

"Oh great." muttered Poseidon. The tension in the room went up tenfold.

"**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty."**

"Great. He's alone with a monster and there is no one around to help him." said Poseidon.

"**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling."**

"Or it was actually growling." Apollo said brightly. Artemis just shook her head thinking, _"How am I related to that?"_

"**Even without the noise, I would have been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

"**You've been giving us problems, honey," she said**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"It is officially the end of the world!" Nico and Thalia screamed.

"Why?" asked Hermes.

"You see," started Thalia, "Percy is never polite…"

"And he never does the safe or easy thing." finished Nico. Although Hermes was confused as to why Nico looked at Annabeth when he said 'easy thing.'

"**She tugged on the cuff of her leather jacket. "Did you think you would get away with it?"**

"Get away with what?" asked Athena.

…

"You guys aren't going to answer my question are you?"

"Nope!" said all the demigods who knew. Athena huffed, so Annabeth took that as a sign to read.

"**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me."**

"That is exactly what she is going to do, Prissy." muttered Clarisse.

Poseidon got extremely pale.

"**I said, "I'll- I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"**We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers had found my illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer**_** from the internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book."**

"How is that worse?" Bet you can guess who said that.

"**Well?" she demanded.**

"**Ma'am, I don't…"**

"**Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then things got weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons."**

"YOU SENT A FURY AFTER MY SON!" shouted Poseidon as he ran toward Hades. Apollo, Hermes, and Ares appeared in his way before he could start hitting Hades and dragged him back to his throne. The tension was so thick in the room that you could have cut it with a knife.

"**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who had been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"**What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword- Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword."**

"Wimp." muttered Ares. He got doused with galloons of salt water.

"**She snarled, "Die, honey!'**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword."**

"How is that 'natural'?" asked Jason.

Annabeth shrugged, "For a half-blood, that is natural." Jason thought about it, then nodded.

"**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!**_

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me."**

"He is still letting the mist affect him?" asked Hera in unbelief.

"_He can definitely make it at the Roman camp." _ thought Jason.

"**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must have been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something."**

Apollo and Hermes looked at each other, then turned to Demeter.

"Demeter, could we-"

"NO!"

Apollo and Hermes started pouting.

"**Had I imagined the whole thing?"**

"Sadly, no, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth muttered sadly.

"**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" asked Thalia.

"**I said "Who?"**

"No!" shouted Connor, "We've lost Thalia to Percyitis now!"

"Percyitis?" asked Annabeth.

""They think the same things that Percy does. Duh!" Travis replied.

Everyone just shook their heads at the two.

"**Our **_**teacher**_**. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"**Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead."**

"Well apparently Zeus thinks so." commented Artemis.

"**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"**Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Man, Chiron can lie!" shouted Hermes.

Annabeth held up the book, "Who's reading next?" Zeus slid of his throne and grabbed the book.

"Iwill."

"**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death."**

**A/N: I am so sorry that I didn't get this on yesterday. I ended up having more chores than I thought. Anyway, thanks to all the people who review and liked and favorite this story. I will try to post at least one chapter this week, maybe more depending on how my week goes. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this huge chapter! Please review. Constructive criticism is always welcome! **


	3. The Socks of Death

Zeus cleared his throat and read, **"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death."**

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle."**

"I feel kind of bad for him." said Leo.

"Yeah, he had lots of weird things happen to him." Annabeth said wistfully.

"**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr- a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip- had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"We should so do that!" shouted Connor. Everyone looked at him with a confused face.

He rolled his eyes, "Next time we see Percy, we should pretend that we haven't ever seen him before."

"Definitely!" Travis said, "How about you guys? Are you in?"

Thalia looked at the other demigods and then said with a smirk, "I think I speak for everyone, but Annabeth. We are in."

Annabeth just shook her head and then whispered so that only the demigods could hear her. "What if he has no memory like Jason? He may not remember you and if you ignore him like you don't know him, he may never remember." Travis and Connor frowned.

"Why do you have to go all wisdom-y on us Annie? Now we can't have any fun!" Connor whined.

"First, don't call me 'Annie'. Second, there is no such word as wisdom-y. Third, because if Percy finds out that anyone could have helped him get back his memory and didn't, he will get mad and possibly use Riptide on that person." Anyone who still had doubts about teasing him that way gulped and nodded their heads.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so that I almost believed them- Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"Ten drachmas that it's Grover." Chris whispered to Travis.

"Deal."

"**But Grover couldn't fool me."**

"Pay up."

Travis grumbled, but dug out the drachmas.

"**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something**_** had **_**happened at the museum.**

"No. You were just attacked by a fury and won. Nothing happened at all." Will said, his voice flowing with sarcasm. When he realized that everyone was staring at him he asked, "What?"

Suddenly everyone bust up laughing. Annabeth just smiled, while thinking, "_It seems that just reading about him makes it feel like he isn't gone. Nobody has laughed quite this much since that night."_

"**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat."**

All the demigods nodded. Sometimes they still had nightmares about their first monster too.

"Poor child." murmured Hera. Everyone just looked at her as if she had grown two heads.

"What? I feel bad about him having nightmares. I don't like him or anything, after all he is a demigod, but he isn't one of Zeus's so I don't hate him as much." Everyone just kept staring at her except Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico. They were glaring. Finally, Zeus started reading again.

"**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunder storm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in the Atlantic that year."**

"You guys are seriously ticked at each other! Why?" Artemis asked.

"I don't know." they said at exactly the same time.

Athena was sitting there thinking, _"What could possibly make them fight this bad. Zeus doesn't know about Percy yet, so it can't be that."_ She had a feeling as if she were missing one vital piece of information from the puzzle. _"Guess I'll have to wait and see what other clues come up."_

"**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs."**

"How could he! Studying is one of the most important things! Without his grades how is he going to do anything in life?" Athena shouted. All the demigods except Annabeth rolled their eyes.

"**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for the spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good."**

Athena and Annabeth started laughing while everyone just looked at them. Annabeth finally noticed that no one understood what that meant, so she decided to elaborate for them.

"An old sot is a drunk person." Then everyone started laughing.

When the laughter died down, Jason spoke up, "Why did the teacher ask him to study for spelling tests? He can't because of the dyslexia, right?" Everyone nodded, but didn't have an answer for him.

"**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

Clarisse was about to tease him, but then noticed the silent tear leaking out of her eyes as she looked down. All the demigods knew exactly what she was thinking. _If Percy was homesick at a boarding school not too far from home, who knows what he's feeling now or even if he was alive._ Thalia started rubbing Annabeth's back until she stopped crying. Athena noticed her daughter's tear and a horrible feeling rose in her stomach. She wanted to ask why her daughter was crying over the sea spawn, but realized that this was not a good time.

"**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties."**

"Paul doesn't seem like a gambler." noted Katie

"He isn't." said Annabeth. "This was his first stepfather, Gabe." Annabeth grimaced when she thought about Gabe. Percy never really talked about him, but she saw enough to hate him during this quest.

"**And yet… there were thing I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me."**

"I'm sure he would love to hear that Prissy." muttered Clarisse.

"**I'd miss Latin class, too- Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied fro. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw my **_**Cambridge guide to Greek Mythology**_** across my dorm room."**

"How could he!?" Athena gasped.

"I know right!" said Hermes in mock-horror. Everyone started cracking up until all the guys but Dionysus, Hephaestus, and the Big Three were on the floor. When they finally got through laughing, Zeus started reading again.

"**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydueces."**

"Well at least he knows the difference between Chiron and Charon now." muttered Annabeth. She hadn't meant for anyone to hear her, but then Poseidon squeaked, "What did you say?"

"Oh, I said that he now knows the difference between Chiron and Charon."

"How?"

"He's been to the underworld how many times now?"

"At least three." said Nico. Leo, Jason, and Piper were speechless. Percy had been to the underworld three times and survived?!

"That is awesome!" shouted Leo. Poseidon looked ready to faint.

"**And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like there ants were crawling around inside my shirt."**

"Not a very good feeling." Travis said, while Connor nodded.

"How would you know what that felt like?" asked Apollo.

"Let's just say there was a prank on the Demeter cabin that went wrong. We had a jar of ants break next to us while we were hiding and we didn't notice until the ants were in our shirts." replied Connor. Katie just smirked, while Apollo nodded.

"**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Someone wants to please Chiron." Apollo said in a sing-song voice.

"Apollo, be quiet before I duct tape your mouth shut." Artemis sighed.

"**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,"**

"Yeah right!" said Nico.

"**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult."**

"You have to give him points there." muttered Hephaestus.

"This book is boring! It needs more action." Ares whined.

**I inched closer.**

"… **alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they**_** know too-"**

"**We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"Well, then Chiron, you will be waiting a long time for that." Thalia snickered.

"Why are you so mean to him?" asked Jason.

"It's a cousin thing. We love each other, but we hate each other at the same time. In fact there were times that I almost killed him and that he almost killed me." she replied.

"Oh! Are you talking about that Capture the Flag game by the creek?" asked Nico.

"Yeah."

"That was awesomely terrifying." Nico decided. Everyone who had witnessed that nodded.

"What are you talking about?" wondered Athena.

"It will probably be in either the third or fourth book." All the demigods nodded and turned their attention back to the book.

"**But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline-"**

"**Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

"What is the summer solstice deadline?" Artemis asked. All the demigods just smiled at her while she huffed.

"**Sir, he **_**saw**_** her…"**

"**His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"**Sir, I…I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Thalia leaned over to Annabeth whispered, "Is he talking about me?" Annabeth just nodded while Thalia frowned.

"**You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

"That will freak him out." commented Demeter.

"Uh, duh!" Hades said sarcastically. Demeter was about to make a remark, but Zeus started reading again forcing her to be quiet.

"**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud."**

"NO! Don't ever give away your position!" shouted Hermes and the Stolls.

"**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart was hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall."**

"Good. Remove all evidence…" began the Stolls.

"And make a hasty retreat." finished Hermes.

"**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow."**

Annabeth gasped, "He's in his true form out in the mortal world!" Everyone nodded.

"**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard the slow **_**clop-clop-clop**_**, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"**Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn…"**

"**Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

"**Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"**Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

"**You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"**Just… tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed."**

"That won't work." Annabeth murmured. "He can just read your emotions, Seaweed Brain."

"**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"Really Percy, when are you not in _some_ kind of danger." Thalia said. She immediately regretted saying anything, because Annabeth started crying silently and Poseidon paled considerably.

"Nice going, Pinecone Face." muttered Nico as he and Thalia rubbed Annabeth's back.

"**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

"THREE HOURS! We feel bad for you, man." said the demigods.

"**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"**Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's…it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips."**

Annabeth clenched a fist and Nico and Thalia leaned over, "Please can we go deck her?! Nobody makes fun of Kelp Head but us." Annabeth had to think about it, but finally answered "If Percy remembers anything and he says yes, then all three of you may go deck her."

"Yes!" they shouted.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

"**I mean…" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"He is not going to take that well." said Athena. Annabeth and all the demigods who knew him nodded their heads.

"**My eyes stung."**

"Wimp." muttered Ares. He got a shower in some icy cold water and a shoe thrown at his head. He looked at the shoe and shouted, "Who threw this?"

Aphrodite huffed, "Be nice, Ares. The boy hasn't done anything to you!" At that statement all the demigods started cracking up. Everyone looked at them with confusion clearly written on their faces.

"Later." Was all Annabeth could get out.

"**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me that I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me that I was destined to get kicked out.**

"That would be difficult." Thalia murmured.

"**Right," I said trembling.**

"**No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say… you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

"**Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

"**Percy-"**

**But I was already gone."**

"Boys, when you get back, please give Chiron lessons on how to properly give people encouragement." Hermes pleaded.

Connor pulled a notebook from his back pocket and wrote it down. "Will do, Dad."

"**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was going cruising around the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich**_** juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities."**

"Hmmm… that sounds like somebody that we know, huh Jason." Leo said with a smirk while pretending to think. Jason caught on, "Yeah, but who could that be?" Piper smacked both of them on the shoulder before kissing Jason on the cheek. Aphrodite squealed while Thalia pretended to throw up.

"Older sister here. Also a hunter so please keep the kissing of little brother to a minimum!"

Apollo and Hermes smirked while Artemis beamed at her Lieutenant.

**I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies."**

"Hey!" all the gods declared.

"I mean, I could deal with calling Poseidon a nobody, but his uncle is not a nobody!" Zeus whined as Hades nodded.

Poseidon did the adult thing and stuck his tongue out at them.

**They asked me what I would be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spending all my free time worrying about where I would go to school next fall.**

"**Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool**."

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed**

"That is rude. Maybe if they ate more cereal they would be nicer." Demeter commented. Katie faced palmed while Travis grinned at her.

"**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Gosh, Perce, you probably gave him a heart attack." Will said while he laughed.

"**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha- what do you mean?" **

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"Never confess." Travis said seriously.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

"**Oh… not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy… I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers…"**

"**Grover-"**

"**And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and…"**

"**Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer." **

**The card was in fancy script, which is murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800) 009-0009**_

"Why is the card in fancy script?" Athena asked Dionysus.

He looked up from his magazine, "Because it hilarious to watch them try to read them."

"**What's Half-"**

"**Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um… summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"**Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or… or if you need me."**

"**Why would I need you?"**

"That was harsh!" Apollo said brightly.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten into fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me.**_

"**Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road- no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen."**

Annabeth felt the sinking pit of fear grow in her stomach. She knew exactly who the ladies were.

"The Fates!" cried Athena. Poseidon was now almost as pale as Hades. All the demigods immediately glanced at Annabeth, who put on a mask that was devoid of emotion. Inside though, she was freaking out.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses,**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me."**

Poseidon started hyperventilating. Annabeth retained her calm demeanor, but in her mind she was thinking, _"No! He never told me that he had seen the fates! If they cut his life cord then he could be dead for all I know. I don't care if you are the fates, you can't have my boyfriend." _

Aphrodite picked up the last line in Annabeth's mind and almost started squealing. The only ones to notice were Hermes and Apollo.

"_Aphrodite, what is up with you?"_

"_I heard Annabeth thinking. She said that Percy was her boyfriend!"_

Hermes and Apollo bent towards each other. "You know what this means?" Hermes whispered.

"The son of Poseidon and the daughter of Athena are dating!"

"We can bug Athena about it for eternity!" They started snickering.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

"**Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

"**Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

"**Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny, Percy." Chris whispered.

"**Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

The room was so tense now that nobody even thought to laugh at Chris.

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors- gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

As did everyone in the throne room. It was so quiet that you could have heard a single pin drop.

"**We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

"Go, Percy. Get on the bus." Poseidon urged.

"**What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"Get your butt on that bus, Prissy." Clarisse growled.

"**Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back."**

The entire throne room groaned.

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that **_**snip**_** across four lanes of traffic. **

"No!" could be heard echoing across the throne room.

**Her two friends balled up the electric blue socks, leaving me to wonder who they could possibly be for- Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"He seriously is thinking about that when he just got a death omen?" Jason asked incredulously.

"That is Kelp Head for you." Thalia answered, although her eyes were on Annabeth's face. She had a few tear dripping down her cheeks, but otherwise she looked okay. She was telling herself to keep it together until the end of the chapter.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

"**Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

"**Grover?"**

"**Yeah?"**

"**What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything." snorted Hephaestus.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like… Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"Much worse my young nephew." Hades said darkly.

**His expression was hard top read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

"**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older."**

Thalia looked impressed. "He figured something out without anyone telling him."

"He isn't dumb Thalia. He's a bit slow, but he isn't dumb." Annabeth defended him.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

"**Yeah, so?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"**This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"**What last time?"**

Thalia shuddered and clenched a fist. She didn't realize that her one decision had affected him that much.

"**Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"**Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"**Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"**Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

"Don't we wish." All the demigods sighed.

**No answer.**

"**Grover- that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That's the end of the chapter." Zeus declared. Silence ruled the room until Hades broke it.

"I guess I will have a new demigod in my kingdom soon." With that comment, Annabeth jumped out of her chair and raced out of the room. Thalia looked at the gods, "Could we please call a break?"

Athena nodded, "Everyone be back in forty-five minutes." With that all the girl ran out after Annabeth.

Athena turned to the boys, "I have a few questions for you."

**A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. I got sick this week and didn't do much typing. The next chapter will be a break chapter with a special surprise. I will try to get it up no later than Monday. Thank you to everyone that reviewed. I really appreciate it. Please review and constructive criticism is **_**always**_** welcome. Until then! **


	4. Secrets, Comfort, and Suprises

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed and favorited the story. I really appreciate it. Disclaimer: I do not own any of the rights to anything Percy Jackson related. The Boys and Gods

Athena turned to the boys, "I have a few questions for you." They all gulped. Travis stood up and said with a shuddering breath, "Guys, maybe we should go see if the girls need any help with Annabeth." They all nodded and quickly stood up. Athena nodded at Hades and he flicked his wrist. Long dark chains wrapped around the guys and pulled them back to their chairs.

"The chains are magical, meaning that you can't shadow travel or melt them." Hades said when he noticed Leo and Nico trying to escape.

"Tell me what I want to know and you are free to go." Athena said. All the guys looked at Jason who said, "Lady Athena, how can we answer a question that you have not asked us?"

"What I want to know is why my daughter is so upset over the sea spawn."

Jason looked nervously at the other guys until Connor finally said, "We can't tell you. The girls would kill us!"

"You can either tell me and get my protection when the time comes or I can kill you now." They all looked at each other and finally shook their heads no.

"Hades, please." Hades snapped his fingers and the chains started to tighten.

"Swear on the River Styx that you won't let the girls kill us." Jason squeaked.

"We all swear on the River Styx." Athena said. When all the other gods murmured agreement, thunder boomed sealing the deal.

"Okay. I nominate Will to tell them!" Travis cried. All the guys nodded and looked at Will.

"Thanks a lot guys! Lady Athena, your daughter has been dating Percy for several months now." Aphrodite squealed and then fainted with joy. Athena nodded grimly and was about to say something when Poseidon spoke up, "Why isn't Percy with you guys? Why does Annabeth always cry when something happens?"

Will looked at Jason, "This one is yours man. I had to break it to Athena, you get to tell Poseidon." Jason just nodded.

"Percy has been missing for several months and nobody knows where he is, but it's a very safe guess that he is at Camp Jupiter. Nobody knows if he is even alive. That's why Annabeth has been crying. She hasn't seen him in eight months."

"Why would my son be at Camp Jupiter?"

"Both he and I were part of a forced exchange program. I was taken from Camp Jupiter and left with no memory. Percy was taken from Camp Half-Blood and also probably has no memory."

"Who did this exchange?" Athena asked, feeling a bit baffled. All the demigods glared at Hera. Jason didn't trust his voice, so he looked at Nico.

"Hera stole both boys." Athena noticed the furious expressions on both Zeus and Poseidon's faces and quickly stepped in before they could kill Hera.

"I'm sure there was a good reason for what Hera did. Right?" She directed the last question to the demigods.

"Yes," Jason said, "but we can't tell you why. I'm sure it will come up in the books."

Everyone nodded as if his answered made sense.

"Good." Athena said. "We have a few more minutes before the girls arrive. Why don't we-" She was cut off by a bright light filling the room.

The Girls

Thalia and the other girl didn't have to look hard for Annabeth. They had remembered that one of Annabeth and Percy's favorite places on Olympus hadn't been destroyed by Kronos. They found her sitting on the edge of their favorite fountain sobbing. Thalia rushed over and wrapped her up in a huge hug while Piper patted her back. Clarisse and Katie knelt right in front of her, but didn't say anything.

"Thalia, he never told me that he had seen the Fates!" Annabeth sobbed.

"I know." she replied.

"I haven't seen him in eight months! What if he died? I would never be able to stand it!"

"Annabeth," Piper said. "from what I've heard of Percy, he is a strong warrior. I'm sure he will be just fine."

"Yeah, Annabeth. Prissy can handle himself against anything. Remember that he beat my dad with hardly any training." Clarisse added, although she still didn't look too happy about the last part.

"Also remember that nothing can stop Percy from coming back to you. I remember how upset he was when you disappeared. I bet that even Hera couldn't steal your memory away from him. He's too stubborn for that." Katie added softly.

Annabeth nodded and stopped crying.

"Besides," Thalia said, "if he dies we can haul Nico to the underworld and make him bring him back so that we can kick his butt. Who's up for that?" All the girls started laughing. When they finally calmed down, Annabeth spoke up. "We probably ought to get back to the throne room." They all nodded and started making their way back.

The Throne Room

Everyone turned their heads as the light grew painfully bright. When it died down, everyone turned to see a boy with dark hair and sea green eyes sitting on the floor shaking his head. He blinked his eyes a few times and stood up. "Note to self," he muttered, "next time Apollo and Hermes ask you if you want to see your girlfriend earlier than you were going to, say yes but without the headache of getting there." All the guys got over their shock and started grinning. Travis was the first to talk. "Percy Jackson, hasn't anyone ever told you that you shouldn't talk to yourself?" Percy whirled toward the voice and uncapped Riptide. When he saw all of his friends, he capped his sword and said, "Hey guys! What'd I miss?" The guys started laughing and everyone who knew him ran over and gave him a hug or slapped his shoulder. Leo and Jason just stared at him. Jason was thinking, _"So this is the famous Percy Jackson? He doesn't look like much."_ While Leo was thinking, _"Cool! I finally get to meet the guy everyone has been talking about!"_

"So what are we doing here?" Percy asked.

"Well, do you want the long story or the short story?" asked Will.

"Short story."

"We were sent back in time to read books about you."

"Is it just you guys or…or is there anyone else here?"

Chris smiled. "We knew you were going to ask that dude. Annabeth, Katie, Clarisse, Thalia, and a girl named Piper are here too."

"Who's Piper?"

Jason stepped forward. "Piper is my girlfriend." Percy looked at him for a while and finally said, "You must be the famous Jason Grace."

"Yes." Jason said as he moved closer. Percy stepped forward and held out his hand, "My name is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon." They shook hands and Jason pointed over his shoulder. "That's Leo Valdez. He is a son of Hephaestus." Percy and Leo shook hands.

"So…" Percy started. "Where's Annabeth?"

Connor looked at him. "Dude, we just read the chapter where you saw the fates snip the life cord and she ran out crying as soon as we were done. That's where all the girls are. They're trying to calm her down. Plus you don't have to worry about Athena blasting you to pieces because she knows that you two are dating."

"What?" Percy whirled around again to see all the gods staring at him. "Um…hi?" was all he said. Just then they could hear the girls laughing as they came back to the throne room. Travis suddenly got a mischievous gleam to his eyes. "Percy, hide until we tell you to come out and don't make a sound." Percy nodded and ran to hide behind his father's throne. He made it just in time because the girls walked in and saw the boys very guilty looking faces. Thalia narrowed her eyes and said, "What are you guys hiding?"

Travis stepped forward and coolly said, "The gods now know about Percy and Annabeth dating." He jumped back just in time to avoid a smack to his face. Thalia was throwing of sparks. Katie looked ready to kill him while Clarisse looked ready to pound him. Annabeth just stood there with a calm look on her face. "Guys," she called out. "if they told everyone then they told everyone. It's not a big deal." Everyone was looking at her in shock. They all figured that if anyone was going to be ticked about this it would be Annabeth. Travis looked at Connor and a silent conversation went on in their minds. He walked up to Annabeth and gave her a hug. "Did you guys talk everything out?" All the girls looked at him in shock. Connor came right up beside him and said, "Yeah is everything better now?" The girls weren't quite sure what to make of this, but Katie look furious. Connor left and went behind the guys who were trying not to laugh. What only a few gods could see was that when Travis hugged Annabeth, he had stolen her invisibility hat. Connor went over to Percy and handed him the hat. "When everyone sits down. Walk over to Annabeth and stand right in front of her. When you get the signal, take off the hat." Then Connor turned around and walked back to the group.

Everyone sat down in their chairs, but Annabeth sat on the couch with Thalia on one side and an open seat on the other.

"So," Travis said. "who wants to read next?"

"I would like to." said Athena. Travis nodded and gave her the book. He turned to Annabeth. "Hey Annabeth. While you guys were outside talking, we found you a surprise." All the girls stared at him quizzically, while the rest of the guys and the gods were trying not to laugh. "Annabeth, I want you to say come out surprise. As loud as you can."

Annabeth gave him a weird look but said, "Come out surprise." As soon as she finished Percy slipped her hat off his head and appeared kneeling right in front of her. The entire room was silent. Finally Annabeth squealed and launched herself into Percy's open arms. "Don't you ever leave me again, Seaweed Brain!"

"If I can help it, I swear to never leave you again my Wise Girl!"

"AWWWW!" said all the girls but Clarisse and Athena. Everybody plugged their ears when Percy and Annabeth kissed each other. Right on cue Aphrodite screeched at the top of her lungs, "AWWWWW! THAT IS SO ROMANTIC!"

After everything calmed down and Percy officially introduced himself to the gods and to Piper, Athena turned back to the book.

"**Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants."**

**A/N: Please review! Constructive criticism is always welcome! What did you guys think of how I brought Percy in? Enjoy! I will try to get another chapter up as soon as possible! Until then, enjoy! **


	5. Grover Loses His Pants

AN: I'm sure that you all want to strangle me for taking so long to update. I don't really have an excuse, other than I was really stressing out on studying for my drivers test and then this chapter took way longer to type than I thought it would. So sorry! Anyway, here is the next chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to the awesome Percy Jackson series.

Everyone went to sit down while Athena turned back to the book.

"**Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants"**

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal."**

"That was rude young demigod." Hera scolded.

Percy glared at her but replied, "I know."

I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why doe sit always have to be sixth grade?"

"Yeah that would freak me out too." muttered Jason.

All the other demigods nodded.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

"**East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

The Stolls looked at each other with a mischievous gleam in their eyes. Percy noticed and smirked, "You two do realize that I don't live there anymore right?" They both just looked at him. "When did you move?"

"After this year here." Both Stolls looked sad that they couldn't play a prank on Percy at his home now.

A word about my mother before you meet her.

"She is incredible!" Thalia shouted.

"She is awesome!" shouted Annabeth.

"She makes the best blue cookies!" Nico shouted.

Percy just smiled at his friends compliments to his mother.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

"I think that you're right Perce. After all you are one of the best people that I have ever met and you have the worst luck in every world! Mortal and mythological." Will stated.

Jason, Leo, and Piper looked at Will. Leo turned to Percy, "Is your luck really that bad?"

Percy and everyone who knew him started laughing, but Annabeth beat them to answering, "Yes, his luck is that bad. I won't tell you anything, but you will be able to see as we read these books."

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her.**

"Jerk!" Aphrodite shouted as she threw her high heels at Zeus's head. For the goddess of love, she had excellent aim. The shoes hit Zeus right in the forehead.

"OWWWW! What was that for?!"

"Killing her parents!" she shouted back. All the goddesses nodded along with Hermes, Apollo, and Poseidon.

**She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program.**

Athena nodded. Her respect was greatly growing for Sally Jackson.

**Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"That is terrible!" Artemis whispered. Everyone nodded.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"That is so sweet!" Aphrodite squealed.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.**

"I visited you when you were a baby." Poseidon told Percy. Percy nodded and smiled at his father.

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back. Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"Wow! She told a lie that wasn't a lie while still being a lie! I like her Uncle P." Hermes commented.

Artemis looked around the room. "Am I the only one who didn't really understand that?"

"Nope!" echoed the entire room.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Understatement." Thalia said.

"Hey! I wasn't super bad! It's gotten a lot better since I figured out that I am a demigod." Percy protested.

"What do you call being an 'easy kid'?" Thalia retorted.

"I don't give her a hard time anymore, she isn't stuck with Gabe, I haven't gotten kicked out of school for a while, and she doesn't have to worry about my safety being on her shoulders alone."

"Percy, you have been missing for eight months. Your mom is so sad, depressed, and worried that everyone is worried about her. I'm just hoping that she gets pulled here too. That way she doesn't have to worry about you anymore." Thalia whispered so that only the demigods could hear. Percy's face fell. He had almost forgotten about still being missing with all the excitement of being with his friends. He looked at Annabeth and she nodded.

"Okay," he said. "I am still a hard kid."

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick-named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

By the time that paragraph was over everyone was gagging.

"At least you didn't have to actually smell him!" Percy said.

"True, but that is still nasty!" Nico stated.

Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along…well, when I came home is a good example.

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

"**Where's my mom?"**

"**Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

Everyone looked in horror at the book.

"Did he seriously just ask you for money?" Athena asked feeling very disgusted. Percy just nodded, although Annabeth could feel his hands clench into fists.

"No 'welcome back'?" asked Leo.

"Nope."

"No 'good to see you'?" muttered Thalia.

"No."

"No 'how has your life been'?" Jason asked in a shocked voice

"Definitely not."

**That was it. No _Welcome back. Good to see you. How had your life been the last six months?_**

Everyone started laughing when Travis dramatically declared to Thalia, Leo, and Jason, "You all think like Percy does!" When they all calmed down, Athena resumed reading.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in a thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"There is nothing 'handsome' about that guy!" Piper declared.

Aphrodite nodded at her daughter, "I don't even think that I could fix him up."

"You know what. He sounds a lot like a statue that I once saw in an art gallery in Soho. I never did see who the sculptor was though." Annabeth whispered to Percy. He just smiled at her.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. All ways beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"What!" shouted Poseidon. "Did he ever hit you?" Everyone turned to Percy, who was desperately trying not to look at anyone else. Thalia finally walked over to him and forced him to look at her. "You are going to answer that question, Kelp Head. And don't even think about lying because the truth god is sitting in this room." Percy mumbled something so quietly that nobody could hear it. "We didn't hear that." Thalia said. Percy looked up at the ceiling and quietly repeated what he had just said, "Yes, he hit me on more than one occasion. Even managed to knock me out once or twice when my mom wasn't home." Everyone stared at him until their shock was replaced by anger. Thalia started shooting off sparks, Nico started pulling the shadows to him, Clarisse was squeezing her spear so hard that it was shooting off sparks, Travis, Conner, and Chris all looked read to go and steal everything Gabe owned, Annabeth had pulled out her knife, Will was gripping his bow so hard that his hand was losing the blood flow, even the three new demigods looked angry. They could tell that Percy was a nice guy, plus no kid needed to be beat up by their step-parent. Piper's eyes had a dangerous glint to them, Jason was shooting off sparks like his sister, and Leo's hands had caught fire while he clenched them into fists. Poseidon looked the angriest of the gods. He stood up and was about to flash out when Zeus called out to him, "Poseidon wait till the end of this chapter and then we can call it a night. Then you can do what you want and everyone else can go to bed or help you." Poseidon nodded curtly and sat back down. By his time everyone had calmed down enough to keep reading.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

Everyone gagged at the mental image.

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

Athena could feel the light going off in her mind. She gasped and looked at Percy with a question in her eyes. He grimly nodded while everyone, but Annabeth just watched them while feeling confused.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

Piper nodded, "At least there is someone nice there." Percy just snorted in reply.

**"Am I _right_?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

Everyone looked a little green at that thought. "I stand corrected." Piper murmured.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"Done." Hermes and Dionysus said at the same time. They looked at each other and then Hermes continued, "Out of every fifteen games, he'll win one. Only he WILL go home empty handed at the end of the night." Hermes smirked while everyone else cheered.

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"Well that was the wrong name for him." Nico said dryly. Everyone just looked at him weirdly, so he elaborated. "Percy is NOT a child of Athena, so he isn't a 'brain boy.'"

Thalia nodded slowly, "That made sense, Nico. Percy definitely isn't a brain boy!"

"Hey!" Percy shouted indignantly while everyone laughed.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study."**

"Yeah right!" Hephaestus muttered. "I doubt that he studies anything." Everyone nodded their heads.

**He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

Jason looked over at Percy, who had his arm around a very happy Annabeth. "Do you always use sarcasm?"

"No." Percy replied at the same time as all the demigods who knew him said, "Yes." He blushed and looked over at Annabeth, who just nodded her head.

"Dude," Travis said. "you are constantly employing sarcasm, especially when you're fighting a monster." Everyone started laughing at the look on Percy's face.

"Yeah, I guess you guys are right." he finally replied slowly, which sent everyone off into another round of laughter.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"His smell was really that bad?" Chris asked incredulously. Percy nodded and then seemed to realize that Annabeth had tightened her grip on his arm. He leaned over and whispered into her ear, "Don't worry Wise Girl. It wasn't my string that they cut." She looked up at him, her eyes shining with hope. "Really?" she whispered back. He simply nodded. She kissed him and then turned back to the book.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic- how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something- was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

Everyone let out a breath that they hadn't realized they were holding.

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

"Mama's boy." Clarisse muttered.

"And proud of it." Percy replied. Everyone just smiled at him.

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all of the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say and unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"That is impressive." Ares said. All the demigods nodded.

"That's my mom for you." Percy said with pride in his voice.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"Lucky!" the Stolls and Leo whined.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters.**

Thalia gasped, "You actually _wrote_ letters! Like on paper and everything!"

"Yes."

She and Nico looked at each other and said at the same time, "The world is ending!"

"Haha. Very funny, you two." Percy replied dryly.

"I know, right." Thalia managed to say while laughing.

"Just wait till the time comes and you are in these books, Pinecone Face."

Jason looked at Percy, "Why did you call her Pinecone Face?"

Percy gave him a strange look, "She didn't tell you?"

"Tell me _what_?" Percy looked at Thalia while she shook her head no.

He finally turned back to Jason, "If she didn't tell you, neither will I. Although I'm sure it will come up in this book." Jason wasn't ready to drop it but Athena started reading again so he had to be quiet.

**She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

**I told her that she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

So did everyone in the room.

**My mom was the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

Hermes whistled. "That spin must have been wonderful if you made her believe that."

Thalia and Nico leaned over to Percy.

"So Perce," Nico started.

"Now that you're here…" Thalia continued.

"Can we please go deck Nancy?" they finished together.

Percy started laughing but finally calmed down enough to answer, "Maybe when we get back to our time so that she actually knows who I am."

The other two grinned and shouted "Deal!"

**Until that trip to the museum…**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"Don't lie to her, Percy." Travis said seriously. Katie leaned over and put her hand on his forehead, as if checking for a fever.

"Well," she finally said. "he doesn't have a fever, so I can't tell you what's wrong." Connor started laughing at his brother's face when he heard that. "Why do you say something is wrong, Katie." Apollo asked.

"Because a Stoll just said not to lie and he was being serious." The entire room started laughing when she said that.

"Aw, come on Katie-Kat. I can be serious when I want to, plus even I know that there is a time not to lie."

"Don't call me Katie-Kat."

"But you know that you love it."

"No, I don't!" Katie shouted back, blushing. Annabeth decided to save her friend from anymore embarrassment and asked her mother to read.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"No it wouldn't, Seaweed Brain, and you know that." Annabeth said while smacking his arm.

"I do now! I just thought that I was crazy and that there was no need to tell my mom about crazy things."

"He has a point there." Will said helpfully

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

"That will get your attention." Clarisse said.

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights-same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"If he spent less money on his poker games then they would have been able to go!" Artemis exclaimed angrily.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

"Everyone did you big jerk!" Piper shouted. She looked so angry that nobody decided to point out that she was talking to a book.

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood that she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You were serious about that?"**

"Why else would she bring it up?" Will muttered.

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"Oh, he better." Poseidon said growling. He was still furious that Gabe had hit his son.

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for just bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip to last the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Oh sweet bribery!" the Stolls whimpered. Katie just rolled her eyes and smacked Travis upside the head while Thalia smacked Connor.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip…it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"He did not just say that!" Aphrodite shrieked. "Poseidon, count me in for later." He smirked and nodded.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip… And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"He paid for that poker game!" Katie shouted.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"DO IT!" Ares yelled.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad. I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"That's what I want to know!" Leo muttered.

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry that I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"If he misses that sarcasm then somebody needs to buy him a brain." Leo declared. Everybody nodded while Percy tried to hold his laughter in.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

"No way. He really missed that sarcasm!" Connor said while laughing.

"Yep." Percy replied.

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about…whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

"She knows." Annabeth stated.

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I had seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept gripping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.**

"More. Important." Artemis said through clenched teeth. "I'll show him more important. I'm coming with you Uncle Poseidon." Poseidon nodded and turned back to the book.

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"You have to be kidding me! Like he'd be the one driving, he's twelve!" Thalia yelled in outrage. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

Connor stood dramatically and said in a sad voice, "Today we have lost our dear friend Thalia Grace to Percyitis. She is too far-gone to be saved. I'm sorry, Jason, but as it looks like Zeus's kids are being affected earliest, you are probably next. Although being a son of Jupiter instead of Zeus might give you some immunity, in which case, Nico will be infected next."

"Connor?"

"Yes, Piper."

"Sit down and listen." Connor immediately sat down. Thalia high-fived Piper, "Nice going with the charmspeak!"

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked Gabe in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon.**

There was silence in the throne room as everyone stared at Percy. _"He can't be that powerful, can he?"_ was going through everyone's head.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"Oh, it was definitely the wind, Kelp Head." Chris said sarcastically.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out on the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunk into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was to cold to swim in.**

"Well," Thalia said. "I guess you don't go to their rental cabin, do you Annabeth?"

"I do, but I make Seaweed Brain clean it first." Everyone started laughing.

"Wait," Jason commented. "why would you are that the sea is too cold to swim in? You're Poseidon's son." Percy started laughing again and motioned for Athena to read.

**I loved the place.**

"Oh." was all Jason said.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

"AWWWWW!" Aphrodite squealed.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappeared from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"It's like her life force is tied to the sea." Katie said.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"What is with the blue food? That's my color. You would think that it would be green." Zeus huffed.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"That would be nice." Hera muttered.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak like me.**

"Prissy, you don't have a rebellious streak. You have like a rebellious mile." Clarisse snorted.

"Yeah, Kelp Head. If you have a streak, it's an obedience one." Thalia remarked.

"What can I say? The sea doesn't like to be restrained." Percy said with a wink. Annabeth rolled her eyes, but gave him a kiss on the cheek.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

"Poseidon, I still don't understand how you got a woman like this to fall in love with you."

"I have my ways, Owl Head."

"Fish Face."

"Bookworm."

"Kelp-for-Brains."

"ENOUGH!" Zeus bellowed. "Athena, please continue reading.

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Everyone looked between Percy and Poseidon. Hermes finally broke the silence, "You two do look a lot alike." Everyone nodded and turned back to the book.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"I don't care about any of that. I am very proud of you, no matter what." Percy grinned up at his father while some of the other demigods were kind of sad. They doubted that their parents would ever tell them that they were proud.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean…when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But… he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember…something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed that he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now to be told that he'd never even seen me…**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

"I don't feel that way anymore. I understand why you did what you had to do."

Poseidon nodded, but he still felt a little bit guilty.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think…I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "That is not something to say to your mother! You know that she loves you a lot!" Percy nodded, "I know and I am extremely ashamed to have actually said that."

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"See." Everyone nodded.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I _have_ to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"That's not a bad thing, Perce." Connor said.

"Yeah," Thalia added. "even if you aren't normal for a half-blood either." Thalia added. Percy smiled at Connor, then glared at Thalia. She just grinned cheekily back at him.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are."**

"That is so true Seaweed Brain."

"Ditto." all the demigods said, even Jason, Leo, and Piper. They had caught enough of the rumors about Percy to know that he was very important. Percy smiled, while the gods wondered what he had done that was so important.

**"I thought Yancy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

"Percy? Safe? Ha, that is a wonderful joke. When are you ever safe?" Nico commented.

"Such wonderful cousins I have." Percy muttered sarcastically.

Thalia smirked, "You didn't deny it."

**"Safe from what?"**

"Monsters and your family." Clarisse muttered.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

Annabeth looked troubled. "Why would a Cyclops be stalking you?"

"Not all Cyclopes are good." Jason reminded her.

"That is true." Poseidon said. "That one had been sent by me to make sure that my son was safe." Everyone nodded, happy with the answer.

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

Jason, Leo, and Piper stared at Percy in awe. "You did the same thing that Hercules did." Piper breathed.

"Don't compare me to that person!" Percy growled.

"What's wrong with Hercules?" Jason asked.

"That man is a jerk, a thief, and a disgrace to all those who bear the name hero!" Thalia said in the same tone as Percy.

"You've met him!?" Leo asked.

"No. We've met his ex though and I had several dreams about him." Percy said a bit softer. Everyone who knew Percy and Thalia, knew that this was not a good time to talk or argue with them, even the gods. Athena noticed the tension in the room and started reading again.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"Oh, yes, Perry. Risk everyone's safety to spend a bit more time in the place where mommy met daddy." Dionysus said sarcastically. All the gods, but Poseidon nodded in agreement. All the demigods shifted. They could understand wanting to spend more time with their mortal parent in a place like that.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just…just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"CAMP HALF-BLOOD!" all the demigods shouted.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born-talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"Yeah, that would seem confusing." Katie said cheerfully.

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp…"**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

"How could you read your mom that well, but it took you forever to realize other very obvious things?" Travis asked while nodding toward Annabeth, although he made it look like he was nodding toward Percy to the gods. Percy turned bright red and shrugged. All the demigods except the trio **(I'm going to call Leo, Jason, and Piper the 'trio' to save writing time.)** started laughing.

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"Ugh…I hate your dreams." Annabeth, Nico, and Thalia said at the same time.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

"Nothing new there." Demeter said.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed at the horses muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

Annabeth paled considerably. "You were dreaming about him that early?" Percy nodded grimly.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, _No!_**

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten.**

"Yeah, Uncle P. Why have you forgotten?" Apollo asked in an innocent voice.

Poseidon rolled his eyes as Artemis smacked Apollo over the head.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

Everyone caught their breath, hoping that this wasn't another monster.

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't…he wasn't exactly Grover.**

Connor gasped dramatically as Travis said, "Then what is he?!" Katie smacked him over the head as the other demigods rolled their eyes.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

"It's Percy. He wasn't thinking!" Thalia said dramatically.

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"_O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" _he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

"Grover, we already went over this." Leo said.

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be…where his legs should be…**

"Spit it out, Percy!" Hermes yelled.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before. "_Percy._ Tell me _now_!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning. She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. _Go!_"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet.**

**There were cloven hooves.**

"Well," Dionysus said. "that was anti-climatic."

"Who wants to read next?"

"This is the last chapter for tonight. We can eat dinner and everyone else can do what they wish. We will meet back here at nine tomorrow." Zeus said. Everyone nodded and then left for the dining room.

**AN: I am going to try and post the next chapter up tomorrow. It's another break chapter, but it will have some more twists and turns. Please review and let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is always welcome!**


	6. Gabe's Surprise and Guest Rooms

**AN: I'm sorry about the thing with the bold. I'm not sure what is happening. When I type it out on my laptop, I have all the book parts in bold, but it's like my laptop doesn't save the bold. I'm going to go back and fix the last chapter so that it's right. Again, sorry about that. Here is the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it!**

**Song for the chapter: 'Be Thou My Vision' by Jars of Clay**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any right to the amazing Percy Jackson series. So sad! **

**The Dining Room**

All the gods sat down at the table and flashed in what ever they wanted to eat, while the demigods cooked what ever they wanted. Everyone sat down and started eating. Thalia looked around the room and started laughing when she saw Percy's food. "Kelp Head, why is your food blue?"

"I haven't been able to eat blue food for a long time! Besides, I think that food tastes better when it's blue!" Everyone started laughing when he finished. After they all calmed down Poseidon leaned forward. "So who all is going with me to "visit" Gabe?"

Everyone but Percy, Zeus, Hades, and Dionysus raised their hands.

"Guys," Percy said hesitantly. "Gabe has whatever you guys are going to do coming to him, but I really don't think you should go and mess with him. You never know how it's going to affect the future." Everyone looked at him until Travis finally broke the silence. "Dude, you aren't supposed to be smart and make smarty comments like that!" Percy shrugged and went back to his meal. Annabeth suddenly stood up, "Lord Poseidon, may I speak to you privately for a moment?" Poseidon nodded and followed her out of the room. What nobody noticed was the Stolls following Annabeth and Poseidon out of the room.

Annabeth and Poseidon

"Lord Poseidon, I still think that we should go to Percy's house and make sure that there aren't any problems. Maybe even warn Gabe to leave him alone. But we can't let Percy know what we're doing. The only problem is I'm not sure how to keep him from finding out where we are."

Poseidon opened his mouth to answer, but a voice called out from behind a pillar, "Leave that to us!" Annabeth and Poseidon whirled around to see Travis and Connor.

"And how do you plan to do that, son of Hermes?"

Travis smirked, "Simple. We have a very powerful charmspeaker here. Have her put Percy to sleep and then wake him up when we get back. All we have to do is ask Piper without Percy knowing." Annabeth nodded and then turned to Poseidon, "I think that would be our best plan, Lord Poseidon." Poseidon nodded and the Stolls ran back into the dining hall.

Dining Hall Thalia's POV

"So what do you think they're talking about?" Nico muttered to me.

"I don't know…hopefully a way to go talk to Gabe without upsetting Percy." Just then the Stolls ran back into the room and went over to Piper. I started to smile when I realized what Annabeth's plan was. Piper nodded. "Percy, you look awful tired." Piper said nicely, although I could hear the charmspeak in her voice. "Maybe you should take a nap." I had to fight against the sound of her voice, but I could feel myself getting tired. I saw Percy nod his head and fall asleep. I shook my head to wake myself up. I saw Annabeth and Poseidon walk into the room. "So what's the plan?" I whispered to Annabeth. She moved into the middle of the room, "Whoever is going with Lord Poseidon to go talk to Gabe needs to be out in the throne room in five minutes." Then she turned and followed Poseidon out of the room. I looked at all the other demigods and, with a nod, we all ran to catch up with them. When we got to the throne room, Poseidon had us all stand in a circle. "Close your eyes! The light will get every bright and all the gods have to assume our true forms, so don't open your eyes until we say so." I tightly closed my eyes and briefly felt a tickling sensation. I kept my eyes shut until I heard Poseidon say "All clear." When I opened my eyes, I saw that we were standing in front of a tall apartment building. "They used to live on the fifth floor." Annabeth whispered to us. "So what's the plan? Are all us going up together or should we gradually go up or what?" Annabeth got a gleam in her eyes that made me shudder. It usually meant that she had a plan that might be a 'Percy' plan, stupid but crazy enough that it will work.

"Ok," she said while turning to us "I will sneak in with my hat and see who all is in the apartment. I need Nico to shadow travel me to the fire escape next to Percy's window. If I give you an all clear, then everyone can come up. If not, then it's mom's turn to make a plan."

**15 minutes later (Nobody's POV)**

Annabeth ran back down stairs and ran straight into Piper. "Percy needs our help." she managed to gasp out. "Breath slowly, Annabeth. What happened?"

"Gabe caught Percy trying to sneak a slice of pizza from his poker game. Percy ate the pizza as fast as he could, but then Gabe asked him for money. He didn't have any cash, so he ran to his room. Gabe told his buddies that he had a few things to do, so they left. I was going to sneak out with them, but then I saw Gabe going towards Percy's room, so I followed. I just saw Gabe hit him once and then I ran. Sally isn't home, so I have no idea what's going to happen." Everyone nodded and ran for the door. When they got to the apartment door, Poseidon knocked loudly. Hermes and his sons could hear what Gabe said right before he opened the door. He had said, "I don't want to hear a sound out of you brain boy. Whoever is here shouldn't even know that you're here." The Stolls grit their teeth. As soon as Gabe opened the door, the Stolls walked in. "Wow! Nice place you got here!" Gabe looked at them and then at the group of people outside the door. "Can I help you people." Gabe asked, looking quite annoyed.

"Yes," Poseidon said. "We are here to talk to you about Percy Jackson." Gabe looked at him and started to close the door, when Piper called out in a clear voice that was laced with charmspeak, "You are not going to close that door. You are going to listen to what we have to say." Gabe reopened the door. "Who are you people and why do you care about Sally's kid?"

"I care," Poseidon said in a dangerously calm voice. "because Percy is my son. These are his aunts, uncles, and cousins. We are here to warn you. If you hurt one hair on my sons head, we will _all_ be back and you will be in a world of hurt." Just then the Stolls came out and winked at all the demigods. They knew that the boys had done something to Gabe and it would not be pretty. Gabe nodded and quickly shut the door. Everyone stared at the door for a few minutes until Piper cleared her throat. "My guess is that Percy is going to wake up soon, so we should get back to Olympus." All the gods nodded and flashed everyone back to the dining room. They were right on time because less than a minute later, Percy woke up. "Alright everyone!" Athena said. "Everyone go to bed and be in the throne room tomorrow morning at 9." Then she flashed out. Hermes volunteered (more like was told) to show the demigods to their rooms. He led them to a big mansion not far from the throne room. There was a guest room for every god, so the demigods all went to their parents guest room. They gasped as each went into the rooms. Every room was tailored to the person inside. The Hermes room with the Stolls and Chris had three queen-sized beds with tan sheets and comforters, with a huge wide screen TV on the wall opposite the beds with every game system imaginable along with plenty of games for each. The three boys looked at each other, grinned, and raced for the video game remotes. The Demeter room had a full bed with green silk sheets and a green comforter. It had a small flat screen TV with a DVD player. Most of the room was a garden though, with every type of vegetable and many different flowers. A small armoire next to the bed was full of gardening tools. Katie loved it and immediately started working in the garden. The Poseidon room was blue and green with a king sized bed that had blue silk sheets and a green comforter. It had a small pool that Percy almost immediately went to. The Athena room had a small twin sized bed that was pushed up against one wall with gray sheets and a gray comforter while all the other walls were covered in book shelves with a smart board for working on architecture. Annabeth had to think before she finally grabbed a book from the nearest shelf. The Ares room was blood red with a queen-sized bed that had red sheets and a red comforter. Most of the wall space was dedicated to weapons. Clarisse decided to go over and inspect the weapons. The Artemis room was a dark blue that had constellations on the ceiling. There was a queen-sized bed with silver sheets and a silver comforter. It had an area dedicated to target practice. Thalia went over and started doing some target practice. The Aphrodite room was pink with a queen-sized bed that had pink sheets and a pink comforter. The only thing that Piper liked was the TV. It was the same as the TV in the Hermes room without the video games. It would play any movie that Piper wanted. The Hephaestus room had a full sized bed with plain brown sheets and a red comforter. There was a forge and tons of metal pieces. Leo was thrilled and went to work at the forge. The Zeus room made it look like you were flying (probably one of the reasons that Thalia stayed in the Artemis room) and had a king sized bed that looked like a cloud. It had white sheets and a gray comforter. There was a massive TV like the one in the Hermes room. Jason jumped into the bed and put on the TV. There was also a kitchen that made what ever you wanted when you asked it to. There was a commons area that had the biggest TV ever made, four giant couches, a coffee table, and a big cabinet full of games. The demigods decided that they all loved the guesthouse.

The Next Morning

Everyone arrived in the throne room with two minutes to spare. "Who want to read next?" Athena asked.

"I will." Thalia said. "I want to see just how much trouble Kelp Head gets into. The chapter title is '**My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting**.'" Thalia opened her mouth to keep reading, but just then a bright flash filled the room. Once it disappeared everyone could see two people lying on the floor. They looked up and gasped. "Who are you?" Zeus asked. The first person opened their mouth to answer, "My name is…"

**AN: Left you with a cliffhanger didn't I. ;-) Let me know what you thought of this chapter. Please review! Constructive criticism is always welcome! I'll try to update soon. Until then, enjoy the chapter!**


	7. My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting

**AN: Thanks for all the reviews! I got the bold fixed on chapter five and I will do my best to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Without further adieu, here is the next chapter.**

**Song for the chapter: 'Redeemer' by Nicole C. Mullen**

**jason8926: Thanks. It always makes me happy when I hear that people are liking the story.**

**paradiseisland101: I was wondering if anyone would ask that question. The answer is in this chapter. **

**Disclaimer: COTK95 doesn't own any rights to the Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus series. They all belong to Rick Riordan.**

_Thalia opened her mouth to keep reading, but just then a bright flash filled the room. Once it disappeared everyone could see two people lying on the floor. They looked up and gasped. "Who are you?" Zeus asked. The first person opened their mouth to answer, "My name is…"_

The second person laid eyes on Percy and shouted, "Perrr-cy!" and ran to give him a hug.

"Hey Grover! How are you man?"

"Good, except for the fact that you had everyone terrified about where you were." Percy opened his mouth to answer, but Zeus beat him. "Would the two of you please introduce yourselves." Grover bowed to Zeus and turned his eyes to the first person. A girl with fiery red hair and jeans with doodle bowed to Zeus and then to Apollo. "As I was saying, my name is Rachel Dare, Oracle of Delphi at Camp Half-Blood." Apollo got up and started dancing around his throne, singing "My oracle changed bodies! My oracle changed bodies!" Artemis rolled her eyes, got off her throne, marched over to Apollo, and smacked him on the head. "OW! What was that for little sis?"

"First, I'm older. Second, you were acting like a little kid. Third, don't call me sis." With that she turned around and went back to her throne. Grover stepped up and bowed to Zeus, "My name is Grover Underwood, Lord of the Wild." After the introductions, Rachel gave Percy a hug and asked what they were doing. Katie leaned over and whispered something to Annabeth, who nodded.

"Seaweed Brain, why don't you take them out of here and tell them what we're doing as well as bringing them up to speed." Percy nodded and led Grover and Rachel out of the throne room. As soon as they were gone, Katie turned toward the Stolls. "We didn't get a chance to ask you yesterday. What did you do to Gabe and what happened to Percy?"

Travis looked at her with an innocent face, "Who says we did anything to Gabe or Percy?"

"Because you had both a mischievous and a kind look in your eyes, meaning that you did something _to _Gabe and something _for_ someone and I'm guessing that someone is Percy." Travis blushed and whispered something to Connor, who nodded then said, "But you're the one doing the talking." Travis nodded and stood. "Well we stole the money that Gabe had won in his game, but don't worry we left a note that said 'Don't mess with Percy anymore or this will be everything that you earn. Signed T&C Stoll.' Then we went and found Percy, who was hiding in his room. We gave him a tiny piece of ambrosia for the cut on his head. Then we took him to the fire escape and used our flying shoes to take him down to street level, but again don't worry, we used the mist to make it look like we took the ladder. We wrote another note to Sally and told her what was happening while she was gone and gave it to Percy. Then we took the money we had stolen from Gabe and paid a cab driver to make sure that he safely got to the candy store in Grand Central. We told him that if he walked Percy in to the store he could keep the change. He nodded and took Percy to his mom, so I'm sure that he will be fine. Plus, I don't think that Gabe will mess with him between your threats, our threats, and Sally when she got home." Travis finished with a smirk.

Annabeth and Athena both looked impressed. Hermes looked proud of his boys. Everyone else just smiled at them. "Good job." Katie said with a smile. She didn't notice that Travis turned bright red, but all the other demigods did and started laughing. That's what Percy, Grover, and Rachel found when they walked in: a bright red Travis, laughing demigods, and a confused Katie, along with a bunch of amused gods. "Are we going to read now?" Percy asked. Thalia nodded and turned back to the book. **"My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting"**

Grover and Percy turned pale when they realized what the chapter was about.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

"That's my kind of driving!" Ares shouted.

"That's also why your bike is always in my shop…" Hephaestus started.

"And why you're always in my infirmary…" Apollo continued.

"And why I'm always yelling at you for getting hurt!" Aphrodite finished.

By the time they were done, Ares was bright red and all the other gods and demigods were laughing.

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

"Really, Perce? Shag-carpet pants?" Thalia asked. Percy just shrugged in response.

**But, no, the smell was one that I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo-lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom…know each other?"**

"That's all you could think to say?" Nico asked bewildered.

"Well, what was I supposed to say?" Percy defended. Nico was too busy laughing with everyone else to answer.

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay."**

"Good way to sound like a stalker, Grover." Will muttered.

**"But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I _am_ your friend."**

**"Um…what _are _you exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my bets friend is a donkey-"**

"I'm still can't believe you said that!" Grover said while shaking his head.

"I can believe he said it!" Rachel said laughing.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty _"Blaa-ha-ha!"_**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a _goat_ from the waist down."**

"But you just said that it didn't matter." Jason pointed out.

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

"NO! Jason, you're being infected by Percyitis!"

Rachel leaned over to Piper, "What is Percyitis?"

"Connor and Travis decided that whenever someone said the same thing as Percy that they were getting 'Percyitis'. They already decided that Thalia has it. They said that either Jason or Nico would be next."

"Got it."

**"_Blaa-ha-ha! _There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

Katie suddenly started laughing. When everyone looked at her she said, "I remember one day the Stolls told a satyr that they looked more like a donkey than a goat and he spent the rest of the day chasing them and trampling them. It was hilarious!" By the time she had finished, the Stolls were bright red and everyone was laughing.

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like…Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a _myth_, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you _admit_ there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

"That's what you're worried about?" Athena asked.

"Well yeah. I thought I was going crazy, so someone admitting that I wasn't was a relief." All the demigods nodded. They could totally understand where he was coming from.

**"Of course."**

**"Then why-"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like it should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I- wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

Poseidon started to pale.

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

"Grover!" all the demigods other than Percy yelled. Percy started to crack up and motioned for Thalia to read.

**"Grover!"**

Now everyone, but Poseidon was laughing with Percy.

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

"Yes, please." Poseidon whispered.

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

"Magic mushrooms aren't weird at all?" Hermes asked in a serious voice, although his face gave away that he was joking.

"Ok, Lord Hermes. I will give you points there." Percy muttered.

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake no to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

"CAMP HALF-BLOOD!" roared the demigods.

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to…when someone's about to die."**

"Nice, Grover. Scare him more than is necessary." Chris muttered.

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in _me_."**

**"I meant _you_, like 'someone.' Not you, _you_."**

"Will you two please drop this argument!" Artemis grumbled.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

"Thank you!"

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"What was that?" I asked**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

"Please. Please. Please." Poseidon echoed.

**I didn't know where _there_ was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

As did everyone in the room.

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness-the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock.**

Everyone groaned.

**She really _hadn't_ been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

"What gave it away?" Apollo asked.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner…and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling _boom!_, and our car exploded.**

"WHAT!" Poseidon shouted.

"It's okay, dad. I'm fine." Percy soothed.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

"So," Leo said. "if Tyson were to hug me at the same time that you were to drench me and Thalia were to punch me with her sparking fist, I would be able to know what that felt like."

Percy nodded while everyone laughed.

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay…"**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in**

**Lightning.**

"WHAT!" Poseidon, Thalia, and Jason yelled. Poseidon lunged toward Zeus, but Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Apollo, and Hades managed to restrain him and take him back to his throne. Percy ran up, "Father, relax. I'm fine. I wasn't hurt." Poseidon nodded and relaxed a bit, although he still looked a bit upset.

**That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

"Thanks. I think." Grover muttered.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to…" Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud splattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward is on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

Both Poseidon and Athena got pale. "Your luck can't be that bad. Can it?" Poseidon asked his son. Percy's only answer was a nod. Everyone who hadn't heard the story (the gods and the trio) leaned forward in both anticipation and nervousness.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is-"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

Thalia looked pointedly at her father, who did everything that he could to avoid looking at her.

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me.**

**"Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

**"_What?"_**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"Yay! Thanks for mentioning my tree!" Thalia muttered sarcastically.

"Why is called 'Thalia's tree'?" Jason asked her. She grimaced and turned to him.

"I'm sure, Percy will mention it sometimes."

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door.**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

"She can't go Percy." Poseidon said sadly. Percy nodded slowly.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You _are_ coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

Despite the tense air, everyone laughed. Grover turned bright red and mumbled something incoherent.

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises.**

"Are you really still that slow?" Athena asked him. Annabeth started laughing.

"Mother he is always going to be that slow."

"Hey!" Percy whined. Annabeth just laughed and kissed him on the cheek.

**As he got closer, I realized he _couldn't _be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head…was his head. And the points that looked like horns…**

Everyone who hadn't figured out what the monster was realized what was coming after Percy. They all looked at him with a new respect, especially Jason.

**"He doesn't want _us_," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But…"**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then-mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with the horns that was lumbering up toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

"Be angry at the third, but not the first or second." Rachel said slowly.

Percy nodded, but stayed quiet as he remembered what was coming up next.

**I climb across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you-"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to his aid.**

"Why?" Travis asked.

Katie smacked him on the head, "When he said 'surprisingly light', he didn't mean that he wasn't heavy."

Travis said something very smart, "Oh."

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through the waist-high grass.**

Demeter turned to Dionysus, "You really should cut that grass."

"I'll think about it." he mumbled.

Apollo leaned over to Hermes and whispered, "In D talk, he means that he is going to completely ignore whatever she said." Hermes nodded and they started laughing.

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of _Muscle Man_ magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes excepts underwear-I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms-which would have looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary.**

"I don't know," Hermes said while laughing. "I think that it still sounds funny." Everyone was laughing, even Percy and Grover who had been abnormally quite through the chapter. Annabeth knew that it was because of Sally and was glad that Percy was laughing with everyone.

**Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

All laughing ceased as the tension grew.

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leaning up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

Thalia snorted, "Electric sharpener? Really, Perce? You have the strangest thoughts."

"Well, sorry, next time I know that someone is going to be recording all of my thoughts in a book for people to read, I will think normal, rational thoughts." Percy replied sarcastically.

"That's all I ask."

Everyone was trying (and failing) to hold in their laughter at the conversation.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

"You should know by now that the monsters exist! You are a son of the Big Three after all." Athena muttered. Percy did the smart thing and ignored her.

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.**

Athena leaned back in her seat, feeling very impressed with Sally's smarts.

**"I wish I'd known how badly they wanted to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min-"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"I don't get it?" Athena declared.

Poseidon sighed, "What Bird Brain?"

"I don't understand how Fish Face over there got a woman this smart to fall in love with him."

"I have my ways, and no, I will not tell you guys."

**The pine tree was still too far-a hundred yards uphill at least.**

"I wish I could have helped." Thalia muttered.

"Why couldn't you have helped?" Jason asked in an attempted to learn what Percy and Thalia were hiding.

"Let's just say that my current whereabouts didn't allow me to help him." Thalia said glumly.

"Don't worry, Thals. You do end up helping me later on." Percy said mysteriously.

Thalia just smiled.

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows-or not looking exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only fifty feet away.**

Poseidon paled even more. He was as white as a sheet of paper.

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

Everyone started laughing, but Percy noticed that Grover had his head down. He used the empathy link between them, _"G-man, there was nothing that you could have done."_

"_Well, maybe if I had just…"_

"_No. Listen to me Grover. There was absolutely nothing that you could have done to stop what happened. Besides, it had to happen. I wouldn't have gone on the quest otherwise."_ Grover looked up at Percy and smiled.

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up the Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**_Not a scratch, _I remembered Gabe saying.**

All four Big Three kids looked at each other, smiled and chorused at the same time, "Oops."

**Oops.**

Everyone started laughing, but it was full of tension.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way-directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

Athena considered her plan, "That was their best bet for survival." She looked at Artemis, _"I won't say this out loud for Poseidon's sake, but Sally's chances for survival are not very high."_

"_I know the Fate's said not to change the future, but if Sally Jackson dies, we will have to change it and save her life. This does not happen for another five years though, so we should finish reading the book. Also don't share any of your findings out loud."_ Athena nodded and both women turned their attention back to the book.

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

**"Keeping me near you? But-"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man charged started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

Poseidon started to hyperventilate.

**The pine tree was only a few yards more yards ahead, but the hill was getting stepper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

There was complete silence in the room. You could have heard a pin drop.

**My mother must have been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had a feeling she was right-it was our only chance.**

Athena nodded. It was their only chance.

**I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked of rotten meat.**

"How would you know that?" Hephaestus asked. Percy just shrugged in response. Annabeth looked at him in concern, but he smiled weakly at her. She smiled back and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in grass.**

"Oh no!" Poseidon whispered. Athena and Artemis shared a grim look.

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowed yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

"You're just a ray of sunshine aren't you? Why can't you think happy thoughts?" Leo muttered to Percy. Percy didn't even bother to acknowledge that he had heard him. He just wanted this chapter to end.

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there frozen in fear, as the monster charged her.**

Poseidon almost passed out because he was hyperventilating so hard. Percy shut his eyes tightly and clenched his hands into fists. Annabeth noticed and rubbed his back in an attempt to calm him down.

**She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply…gone.**

Poseidon burst out sobbing. Percy looked up, his eyes red even though he knew what happened. He seemed to think for a moment and then went over and whispered something in his father's ear. Poseidon nodded and his crying was reduced to a few tears. Athena felt a light go off in her head. Dissolved into light…shimmering form…flash and then gone. She hadn't died, she'd been taken, but by who?

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

Everyone who had ever seen Percy fight smirked. Here comes 'Monster-killing Percy.'

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

"Thanks, Perce."

"Anytime, G-man."

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey stupid! Ground beef!"**

"Dude, we have to work on your insults! Connor, put him on the list, but Grover takes precedence."

"Will do!" Connor said, pulling a small notebook from his back pocket.

"Do what?" Will asked in an attempt to diffuse some tension. It worked. A few people laughed, while the others just smiled.

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea-**

Annabeth, Thalia, Nico, Grover, and Rachel all said at exactly the same time, "Oh, no." Percy half-heartedly glared at them.

"What's wrong with having a plan?" Leo asked. Everyone looked at Annabeth.

"There is a reason that he's not a son of Athena. His plans never seem to work unless they are completely stupid. You'll see a lot of them throughout the books."

**-a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.**

Everyone that was worried earlier sighed in relief, while everyone else leaned forward in anticipation as to what his stupid idea was.

**I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

**How did I do that?**

"That's what I want to know." Clarisse muttered.

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

Thalia jumped up shouting, "OH YEAH!" and running around the room. Percy, Annabeth, and Nico just laughed at her, while everyone who knew her story smiled, and everyone else was absolutely confused.

"Why is she so excited?" Piper whispered to Jason.

"I have no idea. Maybe she doesn't like the Minotaur?" They just shrugged and watched her until Percy pulled her down into her seat.

"See, I told you that you did help me." Percy whispered so that only Thalia, Annabeth, and Grover could hear him. Thalia's was so big that it looked like her face was a smile.

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned in my nostrils.**

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just back into the tree and squished me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

Athena nodded. The boy was right.

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel.**

Rachel shuddered when she thought about what his face must have looked like. As she remembered his face during the fight with Antaeus she decided that she was just glad that she never saw it.

**I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.**

Ares snorted. "There is no way that will EVER happen kid. The chances of that happening are about the same as you beating me in combat now."

"What about the chances of me beating you when I was that age?" Percy asked with a smirk. Ares didn't notice the smirk.

"You would never have been able to beat me when you were twelve boy. You couldn't beat me now." Grover and Annabeth were doing there best to not laugh.

"If you still want to prove that at the end of this book, then we'll have a fight. Deal?"

"Deal." Ares said smugly. Annabeth and Grover couldn't hold it in any more. They started laughing, but they hid it as a cough.

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, and then-_snap!_**

"No way." Everyone who hadn't known about this said. (Basically the gods and the trio)

Ares had his mouth open and was looking at Percy in shock.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

**The bull-man wailed in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

The whole room was silent as everyone looked at Percy. He turned a bit red and started to squirm. Finally, he couldn't stand it any more. "What?!" He asked.

"You just killed the Minotaur without even realizing what you were. With no weapons other than a bone that you ripped off his head. You are my new HERO!" Leo answered. Everyone nodded.

"I didn't do it myself. The rain was probably giving me extra strength. The pine tree helped me. My mom helped. I didn't do it alone." Percy muttered.

"Seaweed Brain, learn to take a compliment!" Annabeth said as she smacked his arm. Thalia could tell that her cousin was uncomfortable so she continued reading.

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held onto Grover-I wasn't going to let him go.**

Everyone was feeling bad for Percy, even those that knew what happened to his mother. Ares and Clarisse didn't even make fun of him.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

Annabeth turned bright red as all the other demigods who knew that it was her were trying to not laugh.

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

Aphrodite started squealing. "Whoever it is, I'm going to make them fall in love. I'm going to play with their love lives!"

Annabeth and Percy both went red.

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

Finally everyone started laughing. Aphrodite wouldn't stop squealing until Hephaestus promised to take her shopping after they were done reading.

"Well, who wants to read next?" Thalia asked, holding up the book.

"I will." Katie said as she grabbed the book.

**I Play Pinochle With A Horse.**

**AN: I finally finished the chapter! Please review! I have a question for you guys. I am planning on bringing in at least four more people before the quest starts. I want to know if I should bring Sally in during this book. What about Paul? Give me your votes in your reviews. If I don't get more than ten votes, I will choose myself if and when Sally and Paul join. Enjoy the chapter!**


	8. Pinochle part 1

**AN: Thanks for all the reviews. Based on the votes, I will be bringing in Sally and Paul. I haven't decided when yet, but they will probably be the last characters I bring in for this book. Thank you to everyone that has favorited/followed either me or my story. Here is the next chapter.**

**Song of the chapter: 'Remind Me Who I Am' by Jason Gray.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to anything Percy Jackson. **

**I Play Pinochle with a Horse**

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

Connor grinned. "I bet you never looked at barnyard animals the same way again, did ya?"

Percy thought for a moment before answering, "I have never looked at anything the same way again."

All the demigods nodded and said at the same time, "Me neither."

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding.**

Annabeth looked startled. "Ambrosia tastes like buttered popcorn to you?"

"Yeah. Either buttered popcorn or my mom's blue cookies."

"I taste buttered popcorn too."

"Now that's sweet." Piper whispered to Jason as they watched Percy and Annabeth talk about what they tasted when taking ambrosia. Jason just nodded. He definitely wasn't a child of Aphrodite, but even he knew that Percy and Annabeth were perfect for each other. At first he wasn't too sure of Percy, but that had quickly changed with the fury and Minotaur, plus he could see that Annabeth trusted Percy with everything and that was something that she wouldn't do for anyone at camp. Thalia finally got tired of listening to the two of them and gave them as small shock. They turned bright red and faced Katie again.

**The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

"Enjoying that, Annie?" Travis muttered.

Annabeth turned bright red. Katie smacked him over the head, "Travis! Leave her alone."

When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"

Thalia and Nico looked at Annabeth in shock, "You actually thought that he would know something?"

"I didn't know him back then though!" Annabeth replied.

Percy looked at them, his face grim. "I know far more than you think I do. I know things about the war coming up that would probably scare you."

"Will you tell us?" Will asked. Percy shook his head no.

"Do you honestly think that something you know would scare us?" Clarisse asked cockily, but anyone who really knew her could hear the underlying tone of worry.

Percy nodded and muttered under his breath, "I know it really scares me." He was thinking about what he had heard when flying to Alaska. That Gaea wanted to use him as a blood sacrifice and about how he was going to be her pawn. He hadn't meant to have anyone hear him, but Annabeth and his cousins did. They went pale and were all thinking, _"What could possibly scare Percy?"_

By the time they were done, all the demigods were wearing grim expressions.

"What war?" Apollo finally asked. His answer was silence. When the gods realized that they weren't going to get an answer out of the demigods they turned back to the book.

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

"Now _that's_ a Percy answer!" Thalia said with a smile.

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

Athena gasped and the demigods knew that she had made a connection between what was said and the book title. When she looked at Percy with a question in her eyes, he nodded.

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled. "I don't…"**

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

"Well that's one way to make him be quiet." Rachel joked.

"Yep!" Annabeth replied cheekily.

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

"He misses her!" Aphrodite squealed.

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes-at least a dozen of them-on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

"He has way more than a dozen." Hera commented.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

All the demigods grimaced.

"How would you know what a scorpion nesting in your mouth would feel like?" Jason asked him. Percy thought for a moment and then shrugged. "I don't know. I can't remember all the details from that far back." he confessed. Jason nodded in understanding.

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

"Wimp." Ares muttered. He got a very cold shower courtesy of Percy.

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.**

"No. Felt like a week, but it was just two days." Grover replied, remembering how worried he had been during those two days.

**Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said **_**CAMP HALF-BLOOD**_**. Just plain old Grover. Not the goat boy.**

"Hey!" Grover shouted. Everyone ignored him and waited for Katie to continue.

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And…**

"**You saved my life,' Grover said. "I…well, the least I could do…I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

"**The Minotaur," I said.**

"**Um, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"**

Katie looked up from the book, "You shouldn't have said that."

"I know that _now_."

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

"**My mom. Is she really…"**

**He looked down.**

As did everyone in the throne room, even those who knew what happened to her.

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Both Thalia and Annabeth asked. Annabeth said it in a teasing tone, while Thalia sounded miffed. Percy rolled his eyes and waved for Katie to continue reading.

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

"I can completely understand that, man." Leo said, for once being serious. Percy nodded at him and they turned their attention back to the story.

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm-I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

"NO YOU AREN'T!" Percy, Thalia, Nico, and Annabeth shouted.

"I know, I know! It just took me awhile to figure that out." Grover said sheepishly.

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

"**Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

All the demigods turned to the Stolls who had a mischievous look on their face.

"You cannot shave Grover's head." Katie told them firmly.

"Yeah, I agree with Katie. You are not going to shave my head!" The Stolls pouted as everyone turned their attention back to the book.

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

Percy smiled grimly at Annabeth's worried look.

**I was alone. An orphan.**

"Not an orphan." Poseidon said with a smile.

**I would have to live with Smelly Gabe?**

"Never!" all the demigods plus some of the nicer gods (Apollo, Hermes, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Demeter, and surprisingly Athena) shouted.

**No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army.**

"That won't happen kid." Ares said with a smirk.

**I'd do something.**

"We all would." Jason muttered.

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid-poor goat, satyr, whatever-looked as if he expected to be hit.**

"I kind of was." Grover said quietly.

Nico snorted. "As if Percy would ever hit you! He would never hurt a friend."

"I didn't know that back then!"

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

"**Yes, it was. I was supposed to **_**protect **_**you."**

"And you did." Percy stated.

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

"**No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least…I was."**

"You're right," Thalia said. "you _were_ a keeper and now you're the lord of the wild."

Grover nodded as he grinned.

**"But why…" I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

"Do you always compare everything to water?" Hera asked.

Percy looked confused so Annabeth answered for him, "Yes he does."

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here."**

**He helped my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

**I recoiled at the taste,**

"Why? Nectar is awesome!" Travis exclaimed. Percy rolled his eyes and motioned for Katie to read.

**because I was expecting apple juice.**

"Oh." was all Travis could say while everyone was laughing.

**It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not any cookies-my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting.**

Anyone who had ever had Sally's cookies started drooling and shouted, "Those are the best!"

**Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

"You truly do love your mother." Hera told Percy, as she pointedly glared at Ares and Hephaestus. Ares just shrugged, but Hephaestus shouted, "You threw me off of Olympus!" Hera didn't answer.

Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.

"Yeah, ambrosia is cool that way." Will said with a smile.

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

"**What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

"Kelp Head, you always feel guilty!" Thalia said while shaking her head.

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

"That was _not _what I meant." Grover said while laughing.

"Yeah, Percy, are you trying to kill your friend?" Rachel added jokingly.

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant."**

"Don't repeat yourself, Grover." Chris said.

**"I just…wondered."**

"**Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

"**Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

"Is that good?" Piper asked him.

"For me? Yes. For her? No."

Everyone started laughing. When they finally calmed down, Katie started to read again.

"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff."

"**What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

Leo leaned over to Jason and Piper. "Who do you think Mr. D is?" Jason and Piper just shrugged.

"I am Mr. D young Leonardo."

"My name is Leo."

"I don't care, Lisa."

"That's a girls name!"

"Leo," Annabeth said while trying to hold in her laughter. "He does that to everyone. He calls Percy 'Peter' and me 'Annie Bell' and who knows what he calls everyone else." Percy nodded along with all the other demigods.

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it.**

"Yeah. You never did put down and now we know better than to try an steal it." Connor moaned. Percy just smirked at him.

**I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

"It is breath taking." Katie and Rachel said at the same time. They looked at each other and smiled.

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture-an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena-except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun.**

"It is Greek architecture, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth said while poking Percy on his arm.

"I know that now, Wise Girl!" he said while pouting. She just laughed and kissed him.

**In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high-school age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake.**

Travis sneaked a peek at Percy and Annabeth. "Well, I know at least two people that have a wonderful memory of that lake." he said while grinning. The trio and gods looked confused but decided that it had something to do with Percy and Annabeth, as they were both blushing.

**Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

Thalia and Nico opened their mouth, but Percy beat them to it. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm slow. I'm a kelp head. My brain is full of seaweed. I'm an idiot. Blah, blah, blah. Now let's get on with the story." By the time he was done, everyone but the trio laughing. They were trying to figure out how Percy had survived the death glare that Thalia and Nico had sent him while he was giving his speech.

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Blond-haired girl?"

"Well, you do have blond hair Wise Girl."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but gave him another kiss.

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black that it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels-what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step-father.**

Percy got more embarrassed as the paragraph went on. By the time it was done everyone but Dionysus was laughing so hard that they were crying.

"There is no way on this planet that I would have lost a game to that man!" Dionysus shouted in outrage.

"Sorry!" Percy said in an attempt to alleviate some of the wine dude's anger.

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite."**

Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Grover, and Rachel started laughing while Percy pouted. Everyone else that knew Percy just snickered. The trio looked totally confused. Katie finally calmed down enough to answer the trio's unspoken question.

"Percy is _not_ known for being polite to anyone. Even the gods. When we ask him about it all he says is that the sea doesn't like to be restrained."

"Okay." was all they could say. All the gods looked on with confused, yet amused expressions.

**"The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron…"**

**He pointed to the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized that he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

"**Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

"Really, Percy, he just said that his name was Chiron." Hermes said in a joking tone. Percy just smiled at Hermes and then turned his attention back to the book.

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers **_**B**_**.**

"That would be a very good way to give a quiz." Athena mused. "They would get all the answers right, but think that they were incorrect when the answers are all the same."

Annabeth thought about it and then nodded in agreement.

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh.**

"**Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

"**Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult had been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

Travis looked at Percy with big eyes. "Percy how could you not have told us that you were a satyr? If you weren't the child of the prophecy, then who was?" Travis had meant it as a joke but immediately regretted it when Katie smacked him upside his head as the room exploded. Percy grimaced while Thalia and Nico glared at Travis.

"YOU WERE THE CHILD OF THE PROPHECY?!" Zeus and Poseidon shouted for two very different reasons. Zeus was afraid at what the implications meant for Olympus. Poseidon was terrified as to whether his son would be okay. After everything calmed down Jason looked at Percy. "What prophecy is everyone talking about?" Percy looked at Annabeth. She leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Everyone else in here already knows about the prophecy. It's your choice, but I don't think it will hurt anything to tell them. It might help them understand everything that happens to you." Percy nodded and then turned to Jason. "If you really want to know then I will tell you." The trio all nodded. Percy opened his mouth to recite it when Rachel suddenly stood up with glowing green eyes.

_"A half-blood of the eldest gods _

_Shall reach sixteen against all odds_

_And see the world in endless sleep,_

_The hero's soul cursed blade shall reap._

_A single choice shall end his days._

_Olympus to preserve or raze._

After finishing the prophecy Rachel started to collapse but Chris and Will caught her and set her back down on her chair. Jason's face was pale. Piper looked troubled. Leo had his mouth hanging open as all three of them looked at Percy with a newfound respect. Jason finally found his voice. "You had that prophecy on your shoulders?" Percy just nodded. Leo, being his normal self said, "Then if you're the hero, why are you not dead?" Percy looked at Annabeth for help.

"Well," she said. "you are just going to have wait and hear about it later." Leo pouted but knew better than to argue with Annabeth.

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us.**

"**This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

Hermes and his sons all started cheering.

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image.**

Thalia and Nico were trying to hold in their laughter as Annabeth turned to Percy.

"What's wrong with my eyes?" she said in a serious tone. Percy simply smiled and nodded toward the book.

**They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

****"I was." she admitted softly. Everyone looked at her and then burst out laughing.

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, _You killed a minotaur! _or _Wow, you're so awesome!_ or something like that.**

****Rachel looked at Percy, "You honestly thought she was going to say something like that?"

"Big ego!" the Stolls stage whispered.

"I didn't know her back then!" Percy replied.

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

****Silence filled the room for a few moments before everyone started to laugh except the bright red couple.

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

**A/N: I'm sorry that I didn't post a full chapter. I have a major case of writers block and Christmas time is very busy around my house. I will try to get the rest of this chapter posted soon, but until then, enjoy!**


	9. Author

**A/N: I hate it when people do this, but I figured you guys deserve an update on what's happening. I'm about half way done with the rest of the Pinochle chapter, but I loaned my little brother my book so that he could read it for a book report and he has misplaced it. We are looking for it now and I will finish the chapter as soon as possible once I get it back. Just to be clear, I have no intentions of abandoning this story, but it might take me a while to post as I'm am trying to raise funds to go on a missions trip and am trying to finish my school work so I can graduate in May. I wanted to answer some reviews that I had so here goes:**

**PokemonandPJO: That is actually a very good question. With me the writers block in this story is more finding the time and energy to sit down and type as well as making sure to try and keep all the reactions as close to what they might be if Rick Riordan was writing this. I don't know if I'm doing a good job at that, but I hope so. Also just copying from the book is harder than just making something up as you have to make sure that all the punctuation and everything are the same. It takes me three times longer to type out a reading chapter than a break chapter for this story.**

**ROC95, paradiseisland101, Englandrules83, murdax, KitkatMoon, PercyjacksonRULES2001, Lovecoca-cola, Saraarena, rissalissa, chameleon-goddess16: Thank you so much for the reviews and the encouragement and I will try to post as soon as possible!**

**If anyone has any questions for me, just send in a review with your question and I will send out the answer with the next chapter! And again, sorry for the boring author's note as I know you were expecting a chapter instead. Until later! COTK95**


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